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If I remove the heatsink from my processor temporarily, then later put it back without changing the heatsink or CPU, do I need to reapply thermal paste?

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6 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

The thermal paste is there to provide good heat conductivity between the CPU and the heatsink. If you separate the two, it is best for you to reapply some thermal paste (VERY thin layer) in order to maintain good thermal contact between the two.

I usually prefer to clean both the heat sink and the CPU with a q-tip and some alcohol before reapplying thermal paste... and I have never experienced any problems doing so but I can't really recommend doing so in case either your heat sink or CPU does not like alcohol :)

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Hmmm. A drunk computer doesn't sound good. Then again, that's what might happen if you don't attach the heat sink correctly; I've had some funny problems with my overheating computer. – Daniel Dec 18 '09 at 1:37
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@Daniel I hope you're being sarcastic...pretty sure Shoeless meant to say rubbing alcohol, not drinking alcohol. – Adam Ryan Dec 19 '09 at 22:26
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up vote 9 down vote

Can you? Yes

Should you? Probably not. Do you really want to risk it? A tube of thermal paste costs 15$ at a computer repair shop and is good for several applications.

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Agreed. (I couldn't type in my answer fast enough. :) I've had excellent luck with the Arctic Silver products. They make a cleaning kit called "Arcti-Clean" that includes a solvent to remove the old paste. Paper coffee filters work great for cleaning off the old paste without leaving any lint behind. – Tim Lara Dec 17 '09 at 22:52
Nice one on the coffee filters Tim, I gotta try that... might just have to dismantle a PC to give it a shot ;) – Shoeless Dec 17 '09 at 22:54
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up vote 1 down vote

I basically fried my CPU back in Dec 08 and needed to buy a new one due to the fact that, I didn't replace the thermal compound. It was something that I greatly regret and whenever someone now says, "no thermal compound is needed", I would laugh at them and their fried CPU if they actually did replace the heat sink without the thermal compound. It just isn't worth taking the risk! I did and where did it get me?

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up vote 0 down vote

Yes you need thermal paste. and alchool is safe for CPU And Heatsink But you dont really need to clean it.

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Can you give a reference supporting that? – marcusw Dec 18 '09 at 1:47
yes here it is associatedcontent.com/article/630559/… – Darok Jan 3 '10 at 23:20
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up vote 0 down vote

you shouldnt probably do it without the paste.. if you still want to try it.. you can go ahead and you would end up with the computer shutting down every few mins.. and several such cycles would result in a fried processor..

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up vote 0 down vote

I just did it. Cleaned my PC removed the heatsink to clean the fan and didn't replace the thermal paste -(which looked like it will need to be replace soon enough)- and my computer is not giving me any troubles yet, so Yes you can do it. It is just not recommended you do so.

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